Let's ROCK Kids' Cancer

Every year 13,500 kids in the US are diagnosed with cancer -- and 25% of those children will not survive. That's 4,200 child deaths each year. In fact, cancer accounts for the deaths of more children than all other pediatric diseases combined. Most importantly, 95% of the ones that do survive this horrible disease will go on to have chronic illnesses, and 40% will go on to have severe illnesses and even die from them. Despite all this, pediatric cancer is grossly under-funded. Did you know that, childhood cancer only receives 4% of U.S. federal funding for research R&D in pharmaceutical industry?

Research is crucial to the treatment of the disease, especially since most cancers seen in kids are vastly different from the ones seen in adults. It's obvious that we can't keep giving kids the same cancer drugs that were developed for older, more mature bodies. In the last 20 years there has only been one new drug approved for pediatric cancer research. Why? It's too expensive for drug companies to make a profit to manufacture new drugs to treat many pediatric cancers.

Shred Kids' Cancer is a 501c3 non-profit public charitable organization dedicated to serving our community by offering a solution for kids to help fight kids' cancer and show their peers who are suffering that they are here to help them.

This is an organization made up of kids and started by a kid. Kids can use their creativity and organization skills (with the guidance of adults) to make a difference by raising awareness and funds to support research that leads to improving the care, quality of survival rate of children with cancer.

Below is a list of supporting documents and different ways people can help:

Teagan enjoys playing guitar and has been in an original rock band for 6 years writing, recording and performing music all around Los Angeles. He has found an innovative way to use his music to help others.
After seeing his friend suffer from battling cancer and wanting to do more than ask “Are you going to be ok?” in November 2008 when he was 8 years old, Teagan founded Shred Kids' Cancer. After two years of successful events involving hundreds of other kids (and music), in August 2010 Teagan sought out to make Shred Kids’ Cancer official by researching and creating a budget, business plan, writing By Laws, getting directors, filing articles of incorporation, completing IRS forms 1023 and forms 3500 with the State of California to successfully obtain 501c3 status from the IRS.

Impact

Shredfest 8

Feb. 5, 2016

Shredfest 8 is a Battle of the Bands featuring celebrity judges, amazing prizes and an incredible silent auction taking place on Saturday March 5, 2016 at FTC The Warehouse in Fairfield, Connecticut. Doors open at 6:30pm and the show runs from 7pm-10pm. It is organized by Shred Kids Cancer and Phoebe's Phriends which are 501c(3) organizations dedicated to raising funds and awareness for pediatric cancer research.

I have decided to become part of the SOLUTION!

July 20, 2015

Recently, I decided to become part of the SOLUTION in solving pediatric cancer instead of just raising money to solve it.

October 2011 Teagan Stedman named one of The Young Icons for his charity work.

$58,000 awarded to clinical trials for pediatric research

April 15, 2014 we were granted $50,000 to CHLA for the same multi-institution clinical trial led by Dr. Mascarenhas. He will study the combination of vinorelbine with these other chemotherapies in newly diagnosed older adolescents and young adults who have rhabdomyosarcoma.

December 4, 2013 we made a grant of $25,000 to Leo Mascarenhas, M.D., M.S., director of the Clinical Trials Office in the Children’s Center for Cancer and Blood Diseases at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. The grant will be used specifically to help support a new multi-institution clinical trial led by Dr. Mascarenhas.

Adolescents and Young Adult’s diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma, a type of soft tissue cancer, are at very high risk of nerve damage caused by vincristine, one of the most successful drugs to fight rhabdomyosarcoma. Because of the damage it causes, most patients are not given the optimal doses of vincristine.

Vinorelbine acts in a similar way to vincristine against rhabdomyosarcoma—without the same degree of nerve damage—and works well in patients with relapsed disease. However, it has not been studied in conjunction with the other chemotherapies with which vincristine is administered (dactinomycin and cyclophosphamide).

A new multi-institution clinical trial led by Dr. Mascarenhas will study the combination of vinorelbine with these other chemotherapies in newly diagnosed older adolescents and young adults who have rhabdomyosarcoma. This pilot study is expected to begin within the next six months. It currently includes Children’s Hospital, USC Norris, City of Hope and Miller Children’s Hospital; other institutions also will be invited to participate. If successful, this new combination of chemotherapies may lead to better outcomes for adolescents and young adults with sarcomas—allowing them to enter adulthood healthier and happier and lead more productive lives.

In the past year, Shred Kids’ Cancer has granted Children’s Hospital a total of $58,000: $25,000 (December 2013) + $26,000 (June 2013) + $7,000 (November 2012). The $26,000 (June 2013) grant was allocated to focus on various Phase 1 and Phase 2 clinical trials for children with a variety of solid tumors where standard treatments have failed.

Examples of these trials include saracatinib, inhaled cisplatin for osteosarcoma, sorafenib, metformin in combination with chemotherapy for pediatric solid tumors, ipilimumab, vemurafenib for melanoma and sunitinib for pediatric gastrointestinal stromal tumors. The $7,000 granted in November 2012 allowed for the launch and conduct of an innovative, first of a kind clinical trial utilizing a virus to kill cancer cells at CHLA.

We have also granted funds to clinical trials and donated toys and electronics to kids at Mattel Children's Hospital UCLA to Dr. Kathleen Sakamoto and Dr. Noah Federman.